A New Dawn
by calicat
Summary: Chapter two up. After being assumed dead for 8 yrs, Snape' niece, Cora is found...with problems. i am no good with sumaries.
1. The News

Hi, just wanted to get a few things out of the way. First, in no way do I own any of the Harry Potter characters, aside from Cora. Nor am I making any money off of this, it was written and posted for enjoyment only. Second, while I have written other fanfic's this is my first Harry Potter fic, so please review and tell me what you think, be honest, and if you don't like please let me know why. 

Summary: Snape's niece, assumed dead for eight years, is found alive, but she has gone through a horrible ordeal. Snape does what he can to help her get through it. I realize that Snape is a little out of character, but please bear with me. There might be a little romance in later chapters.  The story takes place in Harry's seventh year; and Voldemort was defeated the spring before. Ugh! I am no good at summaries. Please read, review and enjoy. 

A New Dawn

Chapter one

His footsteps echoed strangely in the dark dungeons; glancing around he shivered, wishing it were September. Hogwarts was a quiet place during the summer, Dumbledore had always though that the children were the very soul of this place, and he had never quite gotten used to the emptiness of it when they were gone. Turning a corner he shook his head, it was best to think of the task at hand, he had something important to do. 

Coming to blank stonewall, Dumbledore stopped and knocked. Moments later, Severus Snape opened the "door" with a surprised look on his face, for he rarely got visitors while in his personal rooms. 

"I am sorry to disturb you Severus, but I have just received some information from the Ministry of Magic that concerns you." Dumbledore said with a slightly worried look on his face. 

"It is no problem Albus, I was just surprised to see you. Please, come in and make your self comfortable." Pulling open the door so Dumbledore could pass, Severus could not help but wonder what was so important that the Headmaster could not wait until the next meal. Closing the door quietly, he follow the elderly man into his small, but cozy sitting room, and sat down on a leather chair. "So, what is it Albus?"

Shifting his weight uncomfortably, Albus cleared his throat and looked Severus straight in the eye. "The Aurors made a raid today on one of the suspected Death Eaters, Old Lord Byron." He fell silent for a moment, waiting. 

"I am hardly surprised by that, Albus, nor do I see where this concerns me. The Aurors have been taking out Death Eaters almost daily since You-know-who's' defeat; and Byron always did seem the type." 

"I know that Severus, but I wasn't finished yet. Lord Byron was killed in the attack, refusing to come peacefully, it ended rather gruesomely as I understand. That is not the worse part, after dealing with Byron they searched the house. What they found was absolutely sickening, he experimented, Severus, with magic, on animals, and people. From his records, they were mostly Muggles, but not all, not that it makes a difference. He actually kept records of what he did to them and what the result was." Albus paused for a moment to take a breath and to see what Severus reaction to this was. 

"That is disgusting, but I am confused, I still don't see why you have to tell this to me personally."

"That is not the worst of it, I just wanted to you to understand the severity of this situation. You see all of the people who he experimented on died, sure some lasted longer then others, but they all died, all except one. Somehow, despite the experiments, one young girl managed to survive, she was there for a long time Severus, eight years she lived through that torture." Severus swallowed hard, but kept silent. "When the Aurors found her she was hardly recognizable as human, and she was scared to death of them. The Ministry can't fix her, she is fighting them every step of the way, and Byron didn't bother to figure out how to undo what he did to his victims, so everything they try is a shot in the dark."

"So they want me to help figure out how to reverse what was done to her? I don't see a problem with that, especially if I could see his records." Severus stated, finally understanding why this was being brought to him. 

"That is part of it, but not all. They managed to find out who she is, and it was a shock considering that she was assumed dead. You see her parents were killed eight years ago, the same night she was taken, she was assumed dead as well, but they never found a body." 

Severus felt himself go stiff as he listened, _it can't be._

Dumbledore continued, ignoring Severus's tense look. "Her name is Cora Thomson, her parents were Susan and Ethan Thomson." Severus let out a strangled breath. 

"Cora's alive? It can't be; Albus, Cora's my niece!"      

"Yes, I realize that. Now you understand why I needed to tell you this in private, and why you needed to understand what had happened. Cora is not the same nine year old you remember, Severus, those years of captivity and torture changed her. She is seventeen now, and physically she will never be the same again, I am not sure of what she looks like now, but I want you to be prepared for the worst."

"When can we go get her? I want her safe, Albus; I want her to feel safe, because I am never going to let anything happen to her again."

Dumbledore smiled at Severus' fiercely protective display, then led the way to the door. "Well, get ready then, Severus. We leave in the morning."

Severus watched as Dumbledore walked swiftly away down the hallway and turn a corner. His mind was in chaos, for eight years he had thought that Susan and Cora were both dead. Pain squeezed his heart, he had forced himself not to think of Susan for years, never really able to deal with the grief of having his twin dead. Thinking that Cora, his precious niece, was dead as well, nearly killed him. Now after eight years, to find out that she was alive was more than a little shocking. Going back inside his quarters, felt the tears fill his eyes as he thought about all that Dumbledore had said. _God, she has gone through hell, will she even remember her Uncle Sev? How am I going to cope with this? _The tears slipped silently out of dark eyes as he headed to his bed and slipped into it. As he drifted off to sleep, the memories of that awful night came flooding back to him. 

_"Severus, wake up!" _

_He woke to a rough shaking and looked up into the dark, tearful eyes of his mother. "What are you doing here, Mother? What's wrong?" _ _His voice tight as a desperate fear gripped his heart; somehow he knew it had something to do with Susan. _

Mrs. Snape's voice broke when she tried to speak, tears slipping down her cheeks. 

Finally, she found her voice and spoke in a low wavering tone, "Susan and Ethan were attacked, Sev." She broke down completely, pulling Severus into a death grip of a hug. He could barely make out her next few words through all the tears. "They're dead, someone killed my baby girl!" 

_ He felt as if he had been kicked by a mule, all of his breath left his body in a strangled moan_. _No, she can't be dead, he thought to himself, not my twin. Shock kept him silent as he held his trembling mother, and then memories of a small auburn haired girl entered his mind. What about Cora! _

_"What about Cora, Mother, is she alright?" He prayed as he waited for her respond, but his heart told him not to get his hopes up. His heart was right._

_"No, they can't find a trace of her, the house burnt down and she was inside." Severus closed his eyes as the first tears began to make their way down his cheeks. His beloved sister and niece were gone, it seemed like a nightmare that he might wake up from any minute now._

_He stayed that way for hours, holding his sobbing mother until she fell asleep in his arms. Tears still streaming down his face, he carried her to his guest bedroom and tucked her in. Then he made his way down to his study and pulled out a bottle of muggle whiskey, and set out to drown his tears and the pain in oblivion. _

_The next afternoon, Severus stood in front of the remains of his sister's house. There was nothing left but a pile of ashes; the Ministry was milling around looking for anything that could identify the killer. He knew that they would never find anything; they couldn't even find the remains of his young niece. However, despite their inability, he found himself volunteering to help in anyway possible way. He looked at the blackened ground just a few feet in front of the house; it was the place where she had died._

_Burying his grief deep inside, he turned and walked away. _

Severus woke up with tears streaming down his face. She hadn't been in that rubble, she had been alive. Cora had been out there all that time, and he had never suspected. Guilt swept over him, why hadn't he thought of it then, why hadn't he searched for her? Logically, he knew there was no way of knowing that she could have been alive, but that part of him that knew something had happened to Susan told him that he should have known. 

Glancing out the window Severus noticed that it was dawn, time to go. For the first time in eight years, he was going to see his precious niece again.

**So, what do you think? I am going to try to get the next chapter out next week. **


	2. The Meeting

Hi again, looks like this took less time then expected. Thank you to all who reviewed the first chapter. Enjoy.

**A New Dawn-**

**Chapter two:**

Cora sat quietly in the small room, shaking uncontrollably, but that was nothing new to her. For the biggest part of her life, she had lived in fear; fear that he would run out of Muggles to experiment on and turn to her. She knew that she was special; he saved her for his more complicated, and "ingenious" ideas. However, he was not the reason for her current fear, it was the men in black robes that had taken her away from that God awful house. She didn't know them and she didn't trust them; they were kind to her, but she had learned years ago that you simply could not trust kindness. Byron had been kind to her at times; it was then that the worst things happened to her. Why would they be kind to her anyway? Probably just so she would go along with whatever they wanted her to do. They would just hurt her too. 

She felt eyelids getting heavy, and shook herself awake, she could not afford to be asleep when they came, and she knew they would come. 

Her instincts had taken over when they had tried to coax out of her cell in Byron's basement. She had attacked the first one that tried to touch her; they had to knock her out before they could remove her without injuring her. 

Her eyelids came down again and it tool longer for her to shake herself awake. Then again… and she slept. 

"Mama, look what I found!" A small girl came running up to the trio of adult gathered around a table, holding a ladybug in her hands. 

_"That's nice, Cora, why don't you be a sweetheart and take her outside and put her in the garden." _

_"Alright, Mama, but can I play with her for a while longer?" _

_"As long as you play with her outside, and be gentle with her."_

The little girl, who had incredibly dark red hair and stunning blue eyes, nodded and ran out the front door. Susan watched her daughter go with a smile on her face before turning back to the conversation at the table. 

Outside, she played for a while in the sunshine before heading into the house once again. She noticed her uncle sitting quietly on one of the kitchen chairs, apparently deep in thought. She climbed into his lap without saying a word, startling him back to reality. She giggled at he look on his face, a mixture of surprise and delight. 

"What are you thinking about Uncle Sev?" She asked him sweetly. 

"Just what I am going to do with all those other kids when you come to Hogwarts, my sweet. I don't think that I would be able to be the bad guy when you are in the room." He said seriously. 

"What do you mean?"  

He chuckled, "Don't you worry about it, Cora. What do you say we sneak into the sweets drawer?" 

Cora twitched in her sleep, and a small smile showed on her face. Followed by a small frown and a whimper. 

She stepped out on to the small porch, it was a wonderfully warm summer night and she gazed up at the stars. Lord how she loved to watch the stars; they had always drawn her out into the night. She smiled as she found Ursa Major and Orion, then Draco, and Leo the Lion. 

Then, her sense of calm vanished and she tore her eyes from the heavens to scan the area. Something was very wrong, she had no idea what it was, she only knew it was wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she looked around. Slowly she backed up towards the front door, a movement out of the corner of her eyes caught her attention. She screamed as she was hit with a silencing charm and was picked up in strong hands as her captor took off on a broomstick. Kicking fiercely, Cora tried to bite down on his hand, but a leather glove protected him. Then a flash of light lit up the sky and she looked down to see two people standing on the porch. A woman with black hair and eyes, and a man with strawberry blonde hair and dark blue eyes looked up at her with fear and anger. Both lifted their wands, but they acted to late.

"Avada Kedavra!" Screamed the stranger who held her; she watched in horror as her parents slump to the ground and didn't move. She was too stunned to notice what happened next, but she snapped out of it in time to notice, as she was flown away, that her house was going up in flames. 

"I am glad you could get here so quickly, Professor Dumbledore, and you Professor Snape." Said the young mediwitch. "None of us can get near her, and I am not sure that I can do anything for her anyway. Not without much more extensive training in potions and transfiguration." She led them down a long stone hallway. "I've looked at the records of what happed and I simply cannot figure out how to reverse it."  They came to a door, she stopped, "You need to brace yourselves, she is really messed up; the Aurors didn't even know if she was human at first. We gave her a sleeping draught earlier in her water, so we should be able to go inside without a ruckus." Glancing through a small window in the door, and nodding to herself, she opened it. 

As the mediwitch stepped back, Severus felt his throat go dry, and through the roaring in his ears he heard Dumbledore take in a sharp breath. What lay before him was barely a shadow of the Cora he remembered. 

The small figure was curled up in a corner of the floor, lying like there like she was used to the position, which oddly enough reminded him of a cat. That wasn't all that was cat like, as he walked closer he noticed that she was covered in short hair, it was somewhere between thick human body hair and thin cat hair. She was mostly white with dark red and black stripes, wrapping around her limbs, and he assumed that they covered the rest of her body as well. Her face was striped too, stripes coming down from her hairline to end after a few inches, except for the ones the wrapped around her eyes, giving her an Egyptian look. Her hair was still the same dark red, so dark that without the light one would think it was black. It was her hair that proved to him that this was his niece; he bit back a groan of pure grief. Although now it was streaked with white and black stripes, he knew it was Cora. 

Running a hand tenderly through her hair brought his attention to her ears, they were pointed and set high. Her small hands had pointed fingernails, almost like claws; she twitched in her sleep and he noticed a frown form on her face; and then something hit his side. Glancing down toward her feet he noticed what had been hidden behind her before, a long fluffy tail, complete with red and black stripes. A strange fury flowed over him, and he thought it was good thing that Byron was already dead, because for the first time since came back to the light side, he had the urge to kill something, Byron being the most prominent thing on his mind. 

Then she started to stir, and he hastily turned back to her head, and looked in to her beautiful blue eyes for the first time in eight years. But even those had changed, the pupils were slit like a cats. That was all he could register before she tucked her body up and sprang at him, striking out with her "claws" and dodging out of his way. She darted quickly towards the door where a still calm looking Dumbledore stood with the quickly panicking mediwitch. Just as she leaped at them Severus snapped out of his shock, Dumbledore caught her in his arms as she attacked him and barely managed to grab her wrists before the claws reached him. Showing considerable strength for his age, he deftly twisted her in his arms and held her tight, she let loose a loud shriek and began struggling. Despite being able to his impressive maneuver, Severus didn't think that Dumbledore could hold her for long 

His years as a teacher took over and he said in his strictest voice. "CORA! That's enough!" 

Years of fear and cruel training took over and she stilled instantly. Instinct telling her that if she didn't it would only get worse. 

Severus walked quietly over to her and looked into her strange eyes. He could tell by their glazed look that she didn't really see him; she was too caught up in her fear. He smiled sadly, and gently placed a hand on her cheek, struggling not to break down when he saw her flinch under his touch. 

"Cora, calm down. Everything is going to be all right, I will never let anyone hurt you again. I am hear to take care of you, Cora, you are safe." He crooned quietly, letting his gentle touch and soothing voice work its way through her fear. 

Cora was paralyzed with absolute fear, what was happening? Why was this person who had just yelled at her touching her so gently? Then some of the words began to penetrate the haze that the fear had put around her. She discounted the words at first, but that voice kept nagging at her brain, as she struggled up out of the haze, the memories of her dreams began to surface and she found herself looking into the very familiar face of her Uncle. 

Severus instantly noticed the change, as her eyes became clearer, and her breathing less ragged. Then those blue eyes hit his black ones and he saw the slightest bit of recognition in them, it grew until he was sure that she knew who he was. 

A strangled breath escaped her as she stared at him unbelieving; her eyes began to water with the first signs of tears. 

"Uncle Sev?" was all she managed to get out before Dumbledore gently handed her over to Severus. 

He held his niece tightly in his arms and nodded at her, since he couldn't find a voice to speak with. She threw her arms around his neck and began to sob deep, heart wrenching sobs.  

Smiling Severus turned to Dumbledore and looked at him meaningfully. 

Dumbledore nodded and turned to the mediwitch, "I think it's time we took her home."

So, how am I doing? Is it worth continuing? If you are confused about the way she looks then look up a Cats (the musical) web page and check out the costumes. That is what I was basing her looks off- not an exact replica of the cats- but that's what gave me the idea. Until next time! Calicat.


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